Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Review: Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter by Richard Parks

Lord Yamada no Goji is an impoverished Lord in Heinan
period Japan. He has very little property to his name, and a bad sake habit to
go with it. But he also has an agile mind and a great knowledge of the ghosts,
demons and other creatures that plague Japan.

Through this series of short stories we follow Lord
Yamada as he faces a variety of the beasties that plague local daimyo who have
heard of his excellent services – as well as the schemes he gets gently entangled
with due to his contact with Princess Teiko. Demons, ghosts and always the
tricky youkai cause problems across Japan and many times the answer is not
always as simple or as obvious as just an exorcism or a monster to kill. Lord
Yamada is called when things are delicate, when things are complicated and when
discretion is needed.

Often assisted by the thoroughly disreputable priest, Kenji, Yamada has the
perfect mind to untwist this myriad mysteries.

The world setting is Ancient Japan during the Heian
period and Lord Yamada no Goji is an impoverished lord of that era, though with
skills that make him in demand. I think this book is highly authentic to its
setting – though it’s difficult for me to say since I’m not even close to an
expert in Heian Period Japan. I’ve done some googling and some reading and that’s
not even close to enough. But within those limits of my knowledge, I found no
contradictions and a lot of richness. This book feels extremely well researched
–just the fact it’s taking a period of Japan’s history away from the extremely
popular Shogunate period is an
indication of that in itself. Imagine, a whole book set in Ancient Japan
without a single katana! That alone makes me think it’s authentic because
authors, especially western authors, generally salivate at the opportunity to
stick katanas everywhere.

And the sheer amount of elegant description that goes into this book gives a
strong sense of authenticity. There is so much detail here, so many different
factors being referred to, to many political events being eluded to and just
generally such a rich tapestry of the time, era, religions, mythology and
people. There is a lot of research in this book – a lot of work has gone to
make it very true to the era and setting. It hasn’t just relied in Wikipedia or
google and it shows in the writing. It’s one of those historical novels that
has a true feel of time and place about it.

Related to that, the writing is excellent. All this
information is conveyed, all this beautiful detail about the time and place,
but never is there an info dump, never is it clumsy, never is it convoluted and
never does it drag. It’s always fascinating, always well paced and doesn’t lose
my interest for a second. This is one of those books I can gleefully read cover
to cover without pause. And that’s from someone who doesn’t usually like short
stories. But these flowed naturally into each other, they told and overarching
plot and each just built on each other extremely well despite containing neat, separate
story arcs. And each story was neat – it wasn’t a concept drawn out to turn it
into a short story nor was it a rushed full length novel condensed down. There were
no loose threads, no elements that strongly needed developing. Nothing left
handing or brushed over. They were neat short stories ideally suited to the
short story format.

Lord Yamada and Kenji are excellent characters. They’re
not flawless or perfect – which is always fun for protagonists and major
characters. The reprobate priest and the drunken lord, both aware of each other’s
failings, but both living with them and bouncing off each other well. They have
an excellent friend dynamic which ranges from fun to funny – but always has
depth. And Lord Yamada is an excellent, skilled protagonist without special
powers or magic or fighting skill – he is in demand because he is intelligent
and educated, because he thinks. There are better swords, there are better
magicians and there are certainly better priests – but there aren’t better
brains.

The creatures they face are also interesting because they
take us out of the standard western context of so much of Urban Fantasy. We don’t
have vampires and werewolves, we have oni, youkai and ghosts.

I have 2 issues with the book. Firstly the female
characters were few and not well developed. In many of these short stories,
women just don’t have an appreciable presence. In A Touch of Hell there’s a dead woman to avenge, Sanji’s Demon has a brief appearance of
the Lady Takara who has been manipulated and victimised. Lady of the Ghost Willow has 2 women who appear as love interests
and serve as red herrings.

There 2 somewhat developed female characters in the book
and they are strong, capable women – but strong and capable means “cunning and
conniving” the two strongest being Lady Kuzunoha – a fox spirit pretending to
be human. And Princess Teiko, Lord Yamada’s unrequited love interest whose
plotting is truly masterful and awesome in scope. I love both these characters –
but there’s a lot of dead women in this book, a lot of women who are side notes
a few women who are dangerous monsters and not a lot of women who are major
characters.

My second issue is the single gay man in the book. First I
have to say how impressed and happy I was to see a gay man in this book –
historical settings are so often used as an excuse to erase. Nor did the books
make the mistake of assuming historical homophobia. So there was a lot of
positive here. But, at the same time the gay men has an unrequited crush on a
straight man – and that unrequited love causes him to summon a spirit that
hurts and nearly kills that straight man. There’s such a trope of gay love
being predatory and dangerous – especially gay men lusting after straight men
that it’s unfortunate that this was the inclusion.

Other than that, this book did have some elegantly represented
commentary about class. Lord Yamada frequently has money troubles, but even in
his poverty he acknowledges the difference between him, with his title and his
connections and the common, poor people he meets. He recognises his own advantages.
We also see the difficult choices and plight that can be faced by societal
outsiders – such as the Emishi.

When I got this book, I didn’t realise it was short
stories – and I was disappointed. The disappointment quickly faded and I was
quickly and utterly immersed in these characters, these worlds and this
setting. When I finished it, I was disappointed, not because there was lack of
closure but because I badly wanted the story to continue, I wanted more tales
from the life of Yamada no Goji and the excellent world he inhabited. It was
enthralling, mysterious, beautifully written, excellently researched and a
truly wonderful read – highly recommended.

We received a copy of this book through Netgalley. It is released on 5th February 2013